Motor coupling means for boat hoisting winches



Oct. 30, 1956 Filed June 24, 1953 M. 0. LE sg-zu MOTOR cowunc MEANS FOR BOAT uorsmzc WINCHES Y Y 2 Shsets' -Sheet 1 INVENTOR. Iva/(Q7706 Le Geu B Oct. 30, 1956 M. c. LE esu 2,768,811

MOTOR COUPLING MEANS 56R BOAT HOISTING WINCHES Filed June 24, 1953 qma 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent MOTOR COUPLING MEANS FOR BOAT HOISTING WINCHES Marinus Constantijn Le Gen, Maartensdijk, Netherlands,

assignor to Mij. tot Verwerving en Expl. van Davitoctrooien Davit-Company N. V., Utrecht, Netherlands, a corporation of the Netherlands Application June 24, 1953, Serial No. 363,872 Claims priority, application Netherlands June 25, 1952 4 Claims. (Cl. 254-184) If on board ships use is made of wire falls for lowering life boats, it is not possible to lower a life boat by means of a bollard and a boat hoisting winch must be used.

Such winches comprise one or two drums to which the falls are secured, which drum or drums is or are coupled with a shaft by means of various gear transmissions, a centrifugal governor being mounted on such shaft.

In addition a handbrake is provided on one of the shafts of the gear transmission.

The winch is so constructed that hoisting or lowering of the lifeboat can be effected either by means of a motor or manually.

If the winch is provided with a motor, allowance should nevertheless be made for the fact that such motor may not work, through being out of order or because there is no electric current or sufficient compressed air available. Consequently, these motor-driven winches must also be capable of being driven in the hoisting direction by means of a manually operable handle.

Such a provision is therefore known as emergency hand hoisting gear.

Winches which are not provided with a motor drive can only be driven by providing one of the shafts of the intermediate gear transmission with a square end on which a manually operable handle fits. For convenience, this end will hereinafter be called the square handle shaft end.

In order to enable the boats to be hoisted by motor power without it being necessary to provide each winch with a motor, a small portable motor is used which is provided with a driving shaft fitting on a coupling element e. g. the square handle shaft end. Such a portable motor can be carried from one boat hoisting winch to the other, which gives rise to considerable economy. Motors of this type are mostly provided with projecting bars by means of which the motor can be held by hand.

When operating, the motor produces a turning moment. Because the motor is portable and ishence not secured to the winch frame, the attendants must exert a turning moment of the same magnitude in the opposite direction, which is very fatiguing.

Moreover, the attendants must bear in mind the direction of rotation of the motor, so as to be able to exert the required opposite turning moment when the motor is started.

The motor will always jolt somewhat when in engagement with the square handle shaft end, because it is never possible by hand to keep it exactly in alignment with the centre of such end, while some play for fitting the motor on to the square handle shaft end is desirable.

Consequently, a trestle is often placed under the motor 'in order to support the latter or a vertical support is mounted on the deck in order to take up the opposite turning moment. These, however, are nothing but makeshifts.

The object of the present invention is to solve this prob- 2,768,811 Patented Oct. 30, 1956 ICE lem by providing a winch with a device co-operating with the motor for locating such motor in position.

A feature of the device according to the invention is that the distance over which the motor must be moved in order to effect its location is smaller than the distance over which the motor must be moved in order to bring the coupling element into engagement with the correspondingly shaped driving shaft.

According to one aspect of the invention, the device comprises two parts that are adapted to be interlocked, one part being permanently secured to the winch and one part being secured to the motor.

According to another aspect of the invention, a number of pins are so secured to the winch frame that when the motor is slipped on to the square handle shaft end of the hand hoisting gear a flange secured to the motor can be slipped on to the pins by moving the motor nearer to the winch and if necessary, by slightly turning it.

To this end, the flange is provided with holes for receiving the pins, the flange being preferably arranged about the correspondingly shaped driving shaft.

By additionally extending the holes in the flange on the motor on one or on either side by means of slots and providing the pins on the Winch frame with a collar, it is even possible, when the motor is fully slipped on to the pins, to turn the motor slightly with the result that the motor becomes firmly interconnected with the winch frame by means of a so-called bayonet connection.

The opposite turning moments are now entirely taken up by the winch frame, while the motor is positioned and remains positioned entirely concentrically with respect of the shaft to be driven, while no further attendants are required. An additional advantage is that the attendant need no longer be mindful of the direction of rotation of the motor.

It is also possible to provide the holes in the winch frame and to secure the pins on the motor instead of arranging the pins on the winch frame and providing holes in the flange on the motor.

It is also possible to provide a ring on the winch frame, in the wall of which a bayonet shaped recess is provided into which pins fit which are provided on the motor. The reverse is also possible, of course.

In another aspect of the invention, coarse non-selflocking screw thread may be provided in the above ring, which can co-operate with a complementary screw thread provided on the motor.

The invention, therefore, is not limited to the embodiment described or shown in the accompanying drawing which shows a manner of securing a portable motor to the Winch frame, but various known designs of temporary connections can be chosen for this purpose.

The invention will be illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawing, showing embodiments according to the invention.

Figure 1 shows a section adjacent the manual drive of a winch, a compressed air motor being arranged on the handle shaft.

Figure 2 shows a front view of said winch provided Figure 6 shows the mounting of a winch on the deck of a ship, on which deck a davit from which a boat is suspended, is likewise mounted. i Referring to Figure 1, a handle shaft 1 is connected'by means of a gear transmission 2 with winch drums to which two boat falls are attached.

At one end of the shaft 1 a square end 3 is provided. This square end 3 is surrounded by a sleeve 4 permanently secured to the winch frame 5, which sleeve 4 encloses the square end 3 so that, when the boat is lowered, the shaft 1 cannot catch in the clothing of the winch attendant.

A compressed air motor 6 is provided which has a hollow square shaft '7 slipped on to the square end 3 with slight play.

The motor 6 is provided with a flange 3 having holes 9 from which slots 13 extend laterally.

The winch frame is provided with pins 10, the ends of which are provided with a journal 11 of reduced diameter and a collar 12 of intermediate diameter. The collar 12 fits the holes 9 in the flange 8 and the journal 11 fits the slots 13 in the flange 8.

The hollow shaft 7 is of such a length that when it is brought into engagement with the square end 3, it first slips on to the square end 3- before the collars 1-2 of the pins enter the holes 9 of the flange 8, as the position of the square end 3 relative to the pins 10 never corresponds to the position of the hollow square opening in the shaft 7 relative to the holes 9 at the moment when the shaft 7 is slipped on to the square end 3.

When, therefore, the shaft 7 is slipped on to the square end 3, the collars 12 will generally abut the flange 8.

By turning the motor 6 a little about its axis, the holes 9 can be brought into register with the pins 10 so that the motor 6 can then be moved nearer to the winch until the flange 8 abuts that portion of the pin 10 which has a larger diameter than the collar 12.

By turning the motor to the left or to the right, the

journals 11 enter the slots 13, so that the collars 12 located in front of the slots 13 then secure the motor 6 in place.

If the motor 6 has two directions of rotation, it is necessary to provide a slot 13 on either side of the holes 9 as shown in Fig. 3. If the motor has only one direction of rotation, only one slot is necessary because during the rotation of the motor the opposite turning moment of the motor will tend to turn the casing of the motor in opposite direction.

In Figure 4 the left hand side represents the winch with the shaft 1 and the square end 3, the sleeve 4 being likewise provided. To the frame 5 of the winch an annular rim 14 is secured and provided with a chamber 15 which is concentric with the shaft 1. inwardly directed pins 16 are radially secured.

To the motor casing 6 a rim 17, corresponding with rim 14, is provided, which rim 17 fits with some play in the chamber 15. The rim 17 is provided with hook-shaped slots, the part 18 of which is axially directed, and part 19 tangentially with respect to the shafts 1 and 7, said slots being distributed over the circumference of the rim 17 in accordance with the distribution of the pins 16. The motor may now be slipped so far into the chamber 15 until the pins 16 run against the ends of the slots 18. Only a tangential movement is possible then, by which movement the pins 16 will enter the locking slots 19.

The motor is provided with a shaft 7 comprising a complementary square recess at its end. The displacement necessary to fully couple the shafts 1 and 7 with each other is larger than the distance over which the motor must be moved in order that the pins 16 will engage the slots 19, irrespective of the tangential rotation of the motor casing for effecting the locking.

According to Figure 5 a multiplex coarse screwthread 20 is provided on the annular rim 14, while on the motor casing 6 a rim 21, corresponding with the rim 14, is provided: which is provided with coarse screwthread 22 fitting in the thread 20.

' Atonn of the ends of the screw connection the rims 14 In said chamber 15 and 21 are adapted to bear against each other in fitting relationship, so that a limitation of the stroke is obtained, which stroke is smaller in axial direction relative to the shaft 1 than the displacement required to couple the shafts and 7.

As may be seen from Figure 6 the Winch frame 5 is secured on the deck 23 with suitable means, said winch frame carrying the drum 24.

The. connection between the shaft 1 with the gear 2, better shown in Figure l, is according to Fig. 6 formed by the gears 25 and 26 rotatably mounted on an intermediate shaft 27, the gear 26 being in mesh with the gear 28 keyed on the shaft 29 of the drum 24.

When the motor 6 shown in Figure 1 is slipped on the square shaft end 3 in the sleeve 4 and is brought in locking engagement with the pins 16 by means of the flange 8 provided with the holes 9 and the slots 13, the drum may be rotated by starting the motor and the ropes 30 may be wound on said drum. Said ropes run via pulleys 31 likewise secured to the deck 23 to the davit stands and the davit arms, only one of said stands and arms being shown. Via a pulley secured to the foot of the davit stand the rope 30 runs to a top pulley 33 of the davit stand 34 and subsequently via pulleys 36, 37 and 38 secured to the davit arm 35 they run to the top of said arm. To the top of said arm a hook 39 is secured in which the pulley 40, detachably secured to the boat 41, is suspended when the boat 41 is lashed to the stand, without the rope 30 being directly loaded by the weight of the boat. 7

When the boat is hoisted from the Water the arm 35 is in the outboard position and the rope is only loaded then by the weight of the boat 41. As soon as the pulley 40 runs against the hook 39 so that a connection between said pulley and said hook is established, the boat together with the arm 35 will be drawn into the stand 34 until the arm 35 arrives in its highest position as shown, whereupon the boat may be lashed, so that the rope 30 may be unloaded and the motor 6 may be taken off the winch, in order that it may be coupled to a subsequent winch.

I claim:

1. A boat hoisting winch comprising a frame member, a driving shaft, a boat falls drum, and gear means connecting the driving shaft with said drum, a detachable motor member having a drive shaft for rotating said driving shaft of the winch, cooperating coupling means on the winch driving shaft and on the motor shaft axially slidable relative to each other, cooperating securing means permanently mounted on the frame member of the winch and on the motor member respectively for detachably fixing the motor member against rotation relative to the winch frame member, said cooperating securing means being engageable upon alignment thereof and upon movement of the motor member towards the winch in a direction parallel to the axis of the shafts, the cooperating coupling means on the shafts of the winch and motor member being positioned to engage each other before the securing means engage in assembling the motor member on the winch, and means integral with at least one of the securing means and extending in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the shafts, and operable after slight limited rotation of the motor member relative to the winch frame member for locking the motor member on the winch against axial withdrawal therefrom.

2. A boat hoisting winch according to claim 1, in which the securing means comprises at least one arm carried by one member and positioned eccentrically relative to the axis of the shaft of said member and provided with an abutment, a stud and a head on the free end of the stud, a flange carried by the other member, said flange having a hole therein positioned relative to the axis of the shaft of the carrying member and of a diameter to receive the head of said stud, and an arcuate slot opening into the hole and concentric with the axis of the shaft of the flange carrying member, said slot having a width substantially equal to the diameter of the stud and less than the diameter of the head, the said cooperating coupling means on the shafts of the winch and motor being positioned to cooperate with each other before said head c0- operates with said hole.

3. A boat hoisting winch according to claim 1 in which the cooperating securing means comprise a hollow cylinder concentric with the axis of the shaft of one member, the wall of the cylinder being provided with at least one axially directed slot merging into a substantially tangential slot adapted to be brought into locking engagement, in the manner of a bayonet catch, with a cylindrical part carried by the other member which is likewise concentric with the axis of the shaft thereof, which part exactly fits in said hollow cylinder and which is provided with at least one pin radially directed relatively to said shafts for cooperating with said slots, the cooperating securing means only engaging each other after the initial co- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,691,200 Krug Nov. 13, 1928 2,284,885 Vigborg June 2, 1942 2,559,450 Mayer July 3, 1951 2,655,797 Hale Oct. 20, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,032,813 France Apr. 1, 1953 

